STTR Phase I: Investigation and Optimization of a Novel, Pheromone-based Tool for Measuring Honey bee Colony Pest and Disease Resistance

小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响包括通过早期识别和改进抗病虫害蜂群的繁殖，将蜂群死亡率降低75%。蜜蜂正以前所未有的速度死亡，在美国每年损失高达45%。蜂群死亡的主要原因是寄生螨瓦螨。不健康育雏气味（UBO）检测是一种基于信息素的工具，可将测量瓦螨抗性所需的劳动力成本降低18倍，将决策速度加快20%。该分析的用户友好的设计使得蜜蜂选择和蜂王评估更容易为养蜂人所用，他们通常受到现有分析所需的高技术技能和/或大量劳动力的限制。巴西利亚办事处的分析有可能改善蜜蜂的健康和提高养蜂业的盈利能力，从而可能大大改善全球作物授粉和粮食安全。拟议的项目将评估使用蜜蜂信息素分析来预测蜂群水平的疾病和害虫抗性的技术可行性。这种新工具有可能改善蜜蜂健康，彻底改变蜜蜂育种，并为重要的养蜂场管理决策提供信息，因为它通过快速准确地识别瓦螨抗性蜜蜂群体来提高蜜蜂选择的效率和功效。然而，为了高效并实现广泛吸收，该技术必须在实际和经济上可获得，必须在环境变化的情况下始终如一地执行，并且必须被确立为可遗传的瓦螨属抗性性状的可靠指标。拟议的研究将采用复杂的行为，生物化学，育种和制造技术来优化原型的功效，安全性和交付，降低生产成本，评估原型在环境变量中的性能，并提供概念验证通过对原型试验的菌落反应确定的瓦螨抗性性状的遗传性。预期成果包括提高产品输送系统的安全性和效率，加深对环境变异性对产品性能影响的理解，和确认的遗传特性所确定的蜜蜂行为反应，在-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project includes the reduction of honey bee colony mortality by up to 75% through early identification and improved breeding of pest- and disease-resistant colonies. Honey bees are dying at unprecedented rates, with annual losses up to 45% in the United States. A primary cause of colony death is the parasitic mite Varroa. The unhealthy brood odor (UBO) assay is a pheromone-based tool that reduces labor costs required to measure Varroa-resistance by 18x, accelerating decision-making by 20%. The assay’s user-friendly design makes honey bee selection and queen evaluation more accessible to beekeepers, who are often restricted by the high technical skill and/or extensive labor required for existing assays. The UBO assay has potential to improve honey bee health and increase profitability of beekeeping operations, and thus may significantly improve global crop pollination and food security.The proposed project will assess the technical feasibility of using a honey bee pheromone-based assay to predict colony-level disease- and pest-resistance. This novel tool has the potential to improve honey bee health, revolutionize honey bee breeding, and inform important apiary management decisions, as it improves efficiency and efficacy of honey bee selection by enabling rapid and accurate identification of Varroa-resistant honey bee colonies. However, to be highly effective and achieve widespread uptake the technology must be practically and economically accessible, must perform consistently despite environmental variability, and must be established as a reliable indicator of heritable Varroa-resistance traits. The proposed research will employ sophisticated behavioral, biochemical, breeding, and manufacturing techniques to optimize prototype efficacy, safety, and delivery, reduce production costs, assess prototype performance across environmental variables, and provide a proof-of-concept for heritability of Varroa-resistance traits identified by colony response to the prototype assay. Expected results include improvements to the safety and efficiency of the product delivery system, improved understanding of the effects of environmental variability on product performance, and confirmation of the heritability of traits identified by honey bee behavioral response to in-hive tests of the product.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.